BRITISH holidaymakers have been evacuated from a five-star hotel on the Algarve after a wildfire came dangerously close to the upmarket resort. Hundreds of tourists were told to leave the Macdonald Monchique Resort & Spa just after midnight as flames came within a mile of the complex.

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Although he was not able to specify the exact number of people ordered to leave, overnight reports said the hotel had been about 70 per cent full when the evacuation took place.

More than 1,000 firefighters were still tackling the blaze this morning.

A 72-year-old woman - one of 24 people injured - was airlifted to hospital in Lisbon in a serious condition.

Footage taken overnight by locals living in Monchique, a favourite of former PM David Cameron and his family who regular stay at a luxury property close to the market town, showed a blanket of flames and smokes encroaching on buildings in the outskirts.

Smoke fills the air due to wildfires in the Algarve, Portugal (Image: GETTY)

Earlier in the day residents and holidaymakers were filmed watching on worried from a beauty spot above the town as the fire engulfed forest land the other side.

Several cars and buildings are said to have been destroyed by flames.

Villages near to Monchique - including Portela do Vento and Odemira - were evacuated.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he was in constant contact with local authorities but tried to play down fears of a repeat of last year’s devastating wildfires which killed 64 people and injured more than 250 in the central town of Pedrogao Grande alone.

Insisting the number of people tackling the fire from the ground and the air was far greater, he said: “At this moment the situation is a confined and limited situation and that is undoubtedly the difference to what happened last year.”

European's melt as Europe's extreme heatwave continues

Thu, August 2, 2018

Spain and Portugal are on track to smash existing weather records this weekend as temperatures rock into the high 40s, as the heatwave across Europe continues

People cool off at the beach during the heatwave in the southeastern coastal town of Benidorm

The Monchique wildfire broke out in a eucalyptus forest around 1.30pm in an area called Perna da Negra in the wake of a heatwave which have seen temperatures soar to 46 degrees Celsius (114.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country.

In Spain the heatwave has been linked to three deaths, two in Murcia in the south-east and one in Barcelona.

Seven people needed hospital treatment for smoke inhalation in the municipality of La Codosera in the province of Badajoz near Spain’s border with Portugal on Saturday as temperatures soared to 43 degrees Celsius (109.5 degrees Fahrenheit).

Authorities say they have now bought the blaze under control and are investigating whether it was caused by a local having a barbecue.